The completely revamped
Boston Celtics travel to Cleveland to take on
Lebron James and the
Cavaliers, who also
look a bit different for the 2017-2018 season. The Celts have
only four players remaining from last year's team: Marcus
Smart, Al Horford, Terry Rozier, and Jaylen Brown. They now
boast superstars in Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward, a high draft
pick in Jayson Tatum, young talent with Guerschon Yabusele and Abdel
Nader, and a veteran bigs/power forward in Marcus Morris and Aron
Baynes.

The biggest loss for the Cleveland Cavaliers is obviously Kyrie
Irving, who was traded to the Celtics for a draft pick, Isaiah
Thomas (inactive), Jae Crowder, and Ante Zizic. They also
grabbed an aging Dwayne Wade and an oft-injured Derrick Rose in free
agency. Those are nice players and all, but without Kyrie and
a healthy Isaiah Thomas, the Cavs are in significantly worse shape
than before. It remains to be seen how Boston will look out of
the gate, but Cleveland is going to need Isaiah at full-strength to
make the finals again.

Sadly, Isaiah is still grumbling about how wronged he was by the
Celtics, as if no player has ever been traded before in the history
of basketball. It's not like IT4 spent his whole career in
Boston either; he only played with them for 2 1/2 years. He
also makes more than $6 million per year and gets to play with
Lebron James, so it's hard to have any sympathy for him.
Regardless, his hip issue and his terrible defense are a problem for
Cleveland. The Celtics had to hide him on the defensive end of
the floor and that was prior to this major hip injury. The
Cavaliers will need to take him off the floor entirely on defense
whenever they get the chance.
The nightcap features the defending champion
Golden State Warriors
against the Houston Rockets.
The Warriors are basically bringing back all their studs and are the
favorite to repeat the championship and cement their dynasty.
The Rockets are hoping to dethrone them as they added All-Star Chris
Paul to the mix to team up with James Harden. It's probably
not enough firepower to take down GSW, but it should be a strong
team that will be better than just about every other team.